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Elk Head Brewing: It’s a Little Chile Down in Buckley!

As you may have noticed, if you read this little bloglet, TPF has been on a very brief hiatus while The Fool and my adamantly Un-Foolish Significant Other took a wee camping trip down to Kanaskat Palmer State Park, a place I highly recommend for those who want to escape King County, Washington, while not actually leaving it. Laying there under a bell-clear summer sky at night, listening to the Green River murmur its run-off-swollen blues, well, it may not be Paris but it’ll do for what ails ya.

While on this mini-getaway, we took a short road trip into Enumclaw and the adjoining Buckley and were actually within a half-mile or so of the place when my one remaining brain cell coughed up the name “Elk Head Brewing”. I mentioned it to Judye and we, of course, drove past it, turned around and drove past it again, and finally managed to find a sign that is big enough that Mr. Magoo could see it but, somehow, it took us three tries.

I didn’t know squat about Elk Head Brewing; just a name and its hometown, Buckley, which – let’s be honest – has no other earthly claim to fame. I had been through Buckley, which seems to be its main function: a place on a map, a gas ‘n’ bathroom stop, that you pass through on Washington Route 410, on the way to either Tacoma or Mt. Rainier. So, the idea that we’d actually find a brewery there that amounts to anything is in the same class with my wildly-optimistic teenage fixation with always looking down when walking along a road or sidewalk, in hopes that somebody may have dropped a $100 bill.

The Famous Elk Head Growler Collection

Elk Head is in a tiny industrial park on the “outskirts” of what might be called “downtown Buckley”. It’s almost the last building on 410 as you push on to the west, the setting sun, and all the Glory That Is Tacoma. You enter through a regular door, next to a roll-up door which, on this hot-ish summer day, was open to expose a beautiful burgundy old panel van, emblazoned with Elk Head’s logo on the side. Inside the door was a long counter fronting a wall of 14 beer taps, all of which, shockingly, held a different beer. The guy behind the counter could not possibly have been more welcoming and cheerful, short of offering a back-rub, something I try to avoid when tasting beer. (It makes the beer slosh out of my glass.) We told him we’d like to taste everything and he said “Okay!” No dickering about tasting flight charges, no dialog about only allowing four-to-six tastes, he simply dragged out a tiny, two-ounce miniature beer stein and got to work.

I’m not going to go through all 14 beers because we both have to get on with our days, but I will mention several things that really deserve your attention (provided you ever find yourself in Buckley) and say that, whatever was in the back of my mind about Elk Head Brewing of Buckley, Washington, what we found there vastly exceeded expectations.

The first pour was a pale ale infused with citrus fruits, “Citronic”. As these fruit-laced beers go, this was a gem; a jazzy package of fresh fruit flavors that present emphatically without taking over the beer. My big peeve with citrus beers is that the beer frequently disappears. Brewer Rich Dirk has balanced this one masterfully, letting the lemon, orange, and lime notes ride atop the lovely grain and toasted bread flavors. The light touch of banana worked as a gentle accent and the total effect was as refreshing a thing as I’ve tasted this summer.

From the EH Image Wall/Steve VanTrojen

Elk Head “Kilted Elk” is just simply a top-shelf Scottish ale; a strappin’ mouthful of mellow, caramel-drenched malts, married to some impressively assertive hops, producing a balance that a lot of American Scottishes fall well short of. This is Scottish ale as they understand it in Scotland, where hops are not as widely grown as around here and they’ve historically made maximum use of what’s on hand. This actually reminded me a lot of Belhaven “Wee Heavy”, on a slightly smaller scale, packing in Scotch ale muscle into a Scottish framework, to make an incredibly satisfying brew that will stand up well when you’re having more than one. This is just a flat-out delicious beer and will compare favorably to any Scottish made anywhere in the Northwest.

From the EH Image Wall/Jenn Trimble Bickler

I’m instantly suspicious of any brewery that gets too esoteric with their choices in additives. I’m wrong about that, frequently, and always happy to be so but I approach any beer with more than three or four infusions as I would a sleeping rattlesnake. The last beer on the taps was “Elk Dandee”, a 9.2% ABV whopper of a Pale, infused with dandelions(!), ginger, and ginseng. I tasted it with a reflexive scowl already in place and relaxed the second it hit my palate. “Dandee” is a solid effort. This is refreshing, silky, and the exact opposite of overdone; subtle, immensely flavorful, and beautifully made. The fine, faint dandelion flavors – which I know quite well from my childhood experiments with dandelion wine, in my Virginia mountains birthplace – presents right up front, a mild, sweet tang that suggests fresh dill and bananas. Behind that, the ginger – which normally hijacks any liquid it’s mixed into – lays back prettily, adding a brisk bite without overdoing it. And the ginseng adds it’s signature note of radish to the finish, pulling the ale back from excess sweetness. As these Asian-inspired ales go, this is as good as I’ve found from any Washington Brewer.

But the star of the show was what Dirk and Company call “Blast Zone”, a dazzling chile beer that very nearly redeems many of the truly grotesque examples of this style I’ve forced down, over the past ten years. Like many people, I tasted Cave Creek Chile Beer as my first chile ale and the memory of that horror sometimes wakes me up in the night, drenched in sweat. Since that one, back in 1991, I’ve tasted about two dozen but never one as fleshed-out, thoughtful, and enormously flavorful as this EH version. This is quite simply the best chile beer I’ve ever tasted, from anywhere. Rich Dirk used several medium-to-hot chiles, fresh, and put half the yield into a Traeger smoker. This smoking shows up beautifully in this ale, tinging the lovely, bright flavor of the Serranos and jalapenos with a firm smoke character reminiscent of a fine Euro Rauchbier like Bamberg or Aecht Schlenkerla. The peppery burn starts within about five seconds and stays managably warm, comfortably warm, on the palate. The flavors have almost nothing in common with typical chile ales, in which the burn delivers nearly absent of any trace of the actual peppers. This stuff came home with us in a pint growler and it was even better the next evening, as we sipped it contemplatively on our patio. The whole trip down to Buckley would have been justified to get this alone but, added to the other great stuff we found, we’re planning another trip to Elk Head any time we’re within 20 miles of the place.

Local Color at Elk Head's Tasting Room

Just a word,too, is in order about…well, the vibe of the place. It goes beyond just that Elk Head Brewing is located in a small town and all the all-American images that conjures up. We arrived just about opening time. We were nearly the first ones in the door and the crowds arrived right behind us. Clearly, the folks at the brewery know – and like – most of their customers. And just as clearly, these folks do not just come in to drink whatever mild, inoffensive analog of Bud Light EH may have on tap. There was a lot of sampling, lots of laughs, and an immensely unhurried, un-prissy, down-home atmosphere. We both remarked on it: this is just a completely likable brewery, particularly in contrast to a couple of Seattle-area operations we’ve visited that have been in business for less than two years and already have an (unwarranted) Attitude and rock-star swagger that would register from outer space. Elk Head Brewing was a true breath of fresh air that anyone who’s a real beer lover – and not just interested in beer for the Hipness Quotient – can appreciate.

I sometimes get all puffed up with myself and forget that great beer – great anything, really – is not the sole province of cities and their cool, uber-hip urban breweries. Within the past three months, we’ve tasted literally revelatory ales from Kent, Wenatchee, Poulsbo, Waitsburg, and Stevenson, Washington, and Enterprise, Oakridge, Pendleton, and Ashland, Oregon. Now, we can add Buckley, WA, to our must-visit list, for a periodic catch-up on what Rich and his inspired crew are whupin’ up lately.

Note: This is a seattlepi.com reader blog. It is not written or edited by the P-I. The authors are solely responsible for content. E-mail us at newmedia@seattlepi.com if you consider a post inappropriate.